Laptop fan rarely turns off

Piwoslaw · 12-07-09, 08:00 AM

My laptop is 4.5 years old, so I know things can be going wrong. It seems that the fan is almost always on. Not only when doing something, but sometimes I forget to put it into standby, just close the lid, and even sitting in idle for 20-30 minutes hardly ever shuts the fan off. But it's not like it's never off: sometimes when I turn it on the fan starts after a few minutes, sometimes it will turn off when idling, but rarely. I've opened it a few times and tried to get some dust out, but that doesn't help much. Maybe there is dust somewhere where I can't get at it? I got a new battery 1.5 years ago, now it sits much higher so the ventilation under the laptop is actually better than before, but it seems that the fan wasn't on for so long soon after I bought it, compared to now. Maybe the OS's are old (WinXP since I got it, Fedora 6 for the last 3 years) and a clean install would allow it work more efficiently?

It's not the power consumption I'm worried about as much as the noise. The fan is only in 1st speed, so it's not too loud, but the low level noise after many hours a day really gets on my nerves.

Any ideas?

12-07-09, 08:00 AM	#1
Piwoslaw Super Moderator Join Date: May 2009 Location: Warsaw, Poland Posts: 961 Thanks: 188 Thanked 110 Times in 86 Posts	Laptop fan rarely turns off My laptop is 4.5 years old, so I know things can be going wrong. It seems that the fan is almost always on. Not only when doing something, but sometimes I forget to put it into standby, just close the lid, and even sitting in idle for 20-30 minutes hardly ever shuts the fan off. But it's not like it's never off: sometimes when I turn it on the fan starts after a few minutes, sometimes it will turn off when idling, but rarely. I've opened it a few times and tried to get some dust out, but that doesn't help much. Maybe there is dust somewhere where I can't get at it? I got a new battery 1.5 years ago, now it sits much higher so the ventilation under the laptop is actually better than before, but it seems that the fan wasn't on for so long soon after I bought it, compared to now. Maybe the OS's are old (WinXP since I got it, Fedora 6 for the last 3 years) and a clean install would allow it work more efficiently? It's not the power consumption I'm worried about as much as the noise. The fan is only in 1st speed, so it's not too loud, but the low level noise after many hours a day really gets on my nerves. Any ideas?